Butler

Woman Batters Riverside Cop Who Wouldn't Help Get Her Drugs Back: Police

A 52-year-old woman walked into a police station Thursday afternoon in west suburban Riverside, asked for help getting drugs back from her boyfriend and then battered the officer who wouldn’t assist her, authorities say.

About 1 p.m. Thursday, Apryl A. Butler, of Riverside, walked into the lobby of the station at 31 Riverside Road and asked for help with an ongoing property dispute with her boyfriend, according to Riverside police. After she told the responding officer she needed to speak about the domestic situation in private, the officer took her to a conference room.

Once they entered the room, Butler immediately became violent and started screaming at the officer, police said. She then punched and kicked the officer before spitting on him and yelling, “You need to help me.” After hearing the disturbance, other Riverside officers ran to the conference room, subdued Butler and took her into custody.

Butler was apparently upset that her boyfriend would not return drugs to her and became enraged at the officer when he wouldn’t help get them back, police said.

“Ms. Butler came into the police station and thought that Riverside police officers would assist her in getting her drugs back,” Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel said in a statement. “The prescription drugs were not prescribed to her and illegal for her to possess. Her irrational behavior is a definite indication of her dependence on illegal narcotics.”

She was then taken in an ambulance to MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn for an evaluation, police said. She continued to fight in the back of the ambulance as she was being taken to the emergency room, where she was treated and released back into police custody Thursday night.

Investigators later discovered that Butler had recently been bonded out of jail after being charged Tuesday with domestic battery, police said.

Butler was charged with a single county of battery to a police officer and two counts of resisting arrest, police said. She was held pending a bond hearing Friday morning at the Maywood Courthouse.

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